While iPhone users have enjoyed new location-based experiences thanks to early implementations of Apple’s iBeacon technology, companies deploying the bluetooth beacons are also collecting some valuable data on users. We reported previously how some are experiencing huge jumps in app usage and ad engagement since deploying beacons in grocery and retail stores, and today we get some insight into how event planners are using beacons to collect valuable data on attendees. Aloompa, the company behind the iBeacons deployed at the recent Bonnaroo music festival, shared some numbers it gathered on concertgoers that it wouldn’t have had without its iBeacon deloyement. While users of the Bonnaroo app benefited from proximity based notifications for happenings around the event, Aloompa and event organizers gained new insight into how to improve the festival next year:

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Beacon integration is important and helps with navigation throughout the festival site, as well as tracks loyalty to different stages and performers during the festival. For Bonnaroo, the data gathered is invaluable — from learning what people tend to do right off the bat upon entrance to a festival event, to seeing what stages tend to have loyal fans in common, the figures gathered by beacons can help shape and streamline the festival in the future.

Aloompa tracked the most popular stage via iBeacons, the average length people spent in specific areas of the festival, how many users went inside VIP, as well as some stuff you might expect, like the number of notifications each device received on average. The image above shows a heatmap of festival attendees based on the iBeacons.

Aloompa says one of its goals with the iBeacon deployment was to “lay the groundwork and precedence for real time crowd heat mapping for never before seen operational views.” It’s also hoping to let users in the future “relive their experience in a new way: a “retrospective itinerary” — not just looking at photos and tweets, but the chance to see where you were, when, and who you were with — creating a community feeling even after an event is over.”

The company notes that it didn’t collect any personal data about users and all data was collected anonymously. Here are the numbers:

Most Popular Stage: What Stage

Average length in VIP per person: 102.15 Minutes

How many total users went inside VIP: 1,980 People

Number of notifications each device received on average: 12.6 notifications

Total number of unique devices who experienced beacons: 20% of app installs

Delivered a total of proximity 97,270 messages to 20% of app installs over 4 festival days

Messages based on over 811,961 observed user events

Some more numbers from Aloompa in chart format below:

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About the Author

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s weekly Logic Pros series and makes music as one half of Toronto-based Makamachine.

The title of the article needs to be changed in my opinion. the Title sounds like Bonnaroo was collecting personal data on people, but in reality they were just getting anonymous statistics. Maybe something like “Bonnaroo festival used iBeacons to learn what people liked most” or something less menacing.

You don’t think they have the IDFA or device ID to connect individuals to each of the bits collected? Any registration action would likely involve connecting that user info to the device identification…

Like what? your phone number, your address, your credit cards? the most anyone is going anyone to get is the person’s location – anything else cannot be done without user consent as you typing in the information into a form.

They can only tell who you were with if you and your friends enabled Facebook and Twitter integration during the app setup. It tells you that it will see your Facebook friends as well as your followers/following lists on Twitter. It cross references your location with your friends location, so long as your all using the App and you have all opted in to the social media plug-ins. Then and only then can it tell who you were with. So if criminals want to download an app made by the police and then link it to their social media, along with their criminal cohorts – well, then they all deserve to get caught.

You’re already at a music festival. You’ve probably posted on Facebook about how excited you are to see X and Y. So, everyone already knows where you are. The event organizers already know your in attendance. Who cares?

Great post Jordan. Beacons have great potential to change the way visitors attend events for good. Using beacons to collect valuable data about your concert goers is one of them. Event organizers can use this data to gain insights on what works for their audience and accordingly improve their concerts in the future. Moreover, These proximity-detection devices even allow event managers to interact personally with visitors and attendees by triggering location-specific content and alerts to their mobile devices. We recently compiled a checklist on various ways that beacons can be put to use by event managers here: http://blog.beaconstac.com/how-beacons-can-transform-event-management-and-trade-shows/

This new technology is here to stay, Interesting read, beacons can be used in festivals and concerts as mentioned in a very effective way, Organizers can post the program list for such events onto the beacon network and allow the audience members who’ve signed into the network a hassle-free mode of accessing it. Experience Concerts like never before by implementing ‪#‎beacontechnology‬. Here is an interesting article on how concerts can be revolutionized using this innovative technology : http://bfonics.com/bfonicscms/business/revolutionizing-concerts-using-beacons/